


Broken Drabbles

by Midnyghtchilde



Category: Fallout - Fandom, Fallout 4
Genre: Addiction, Drug Use, F/M, Other, Relationship Issues
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-31
Updated: 2016-01-31
Packaged: 2018-05-17 11:57:09
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,099
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5868490
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Midnyghtchilde/pseuds/Midnyghtchilde
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A few short scenes set in between the chapters of my fanfic "Broken"<br/>These are a different view point, different voice, and mostly just some thoughts of things that went on "behind the scenes" in that story.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Broken Drabbles

**Author's Note:**

> So I am working on character development and backgrounds for the Fallout-inspired Original fic I'm writing, and in doing so found I needed to write out some background scenes for Hancock to play with his voice/point of view.
> 
> So these are a few scenes, set between the chapters and events of Broken. SPOILERS if you've not read that.
> 
> These are all set after the events of Relapse.

People had been banging on the door to his office all morning, but John Hancock was ignoring them. He laid on the couch, bottle of whiskey held in one hand. He was drunker than he had been in a long time. He didn’t remember stumbling from the Memory Den back to his office, but clearly he had. He didn’t remember a lot of the last week or so – which had been the point.

John took another swig from the bottle, and stared at the ceiling. Every time he closed his eyes he saw the look of hurt on Bricelyn’s face as she left.

_You fucked up again John._

_She deserves better than you anyways._

John sat up, and pawed through the pile of chems – mostly empty packaging – on the coffee table with frantic movements. He finally came up with half a vial of med-x and a syringe. It wasn’t much but getting more was going to mean opening that door. It would mean trying to avoid Nick and Farhenheit, and probably Daisy. So he dosed himself with what was left, and sat back and waited for the numbness to quiet his mind.

 

It was a few hours before John realized he was starving. He was also completely out of both whiskey and smokes as well now. With an annoyed sigh he stood, straightened his jacket and rolled down his sleeves. He ran his hand over his wrinkled scarred scalp replacing his hat – a motion that was habit from years ago when it was a messy mop of dark blonde locks.

Mayor Hancock stepped out of his office with his head held high. _Fake it ‘til you make it right?_ Ever since he’d found himself standing on the State House’s balcony, with Vic’s corpse swinging in the breeze, he’d been acting the part. _So how come I still don’t feel like I’ve made it?_

He immediately saw Nick sitting in the other room across the stairwell, waiting for him.

Nick knew better than to force the confrontation. John avoided confrontations, unless they involved weapons and ended in death. The kind with words were the ones John had always tried to stay out of. After Bricelyn left, Nick came upstairs and sat down to wait until John was ready. Fahrenheit had banged on the office door a few times in frustration, but it had gotten nowhere as Nick expected. So he waited. It wasn’t the first bender he’d waited out on John, and it wouldn’t be the last. But it might be the one with the messiest fall out thus far.

Hancock crossed the stairwell and stood in front of Nick, arms folded over his chest. “Go on Nick.” He seemed annoyed and wanted the expected lecture over with.

Nick ground out his cigarette in the ashtray and sat back.

“Bricelyn went to find Virgil in the Glowing Sea.”

“Wait what? That aint’ safe. Why aren’t you with her?” The unexpected comment threw Hancock’s bravado off and he was openly worried.

“Because she wanted to be alone. She’s an adult, she can handle herself.”

“That’s ridiculous. The Glowing Sea? It’s crawling with Deathclaws – and that’s probably not the worst of it. I gotta –“

“You gotta what? Stop her? She left 3 days ago.”

_It’s been 3 days already?_ Hancock thought. “I…” Hancock’s shoulders drooped. “I can’t believe you let her go alone.”

“I don’t let her do anything John, Bric’s an adult. She needs some time.”

Nick’s yellow eyes bored into John with all the things the synth left unspoken. It was minutes before he finally said, “That woman loves you John, how is it you’re the only one who doesn’t see that?”

“She…she’ll get over it.” Hancock wouldn’t make eye contact.

“John,” Nick sighed. “I’ve known you since you moved to Diamond city. You’ve never thought you were good enough. But this isn’t really about what you think. Bricelyn thinks you’re good enough for her. Why don’t you trust her to know who she wants?” Nick shook his head. “I remember how Jennie used to look at me – and it was the same way Bri looks at you John. When you find that kinda woman you ought to hold on tight. You don’t push her away.” Nick stood up from the couch and moved towards the door.

“That’s it?” John was confused. Sobriety was crashing back over him. He was expecting a long lecture, an argument, to be told how badly he fucked up.

“You’re an adult too John. I don’t need to tell you how badly you messed up – you saw the look on her face. As I’ve said before, you’re never going to find answers in a jet inhaler, or the bottom of the bottle. Someday John you’ve got to let go of your past. You’re so sure of how you think things will end you’re not giving her a fair chance.”

“Does it matter Nick? She’s gone now.”

“Long as you two are both still breathing, there’s a chance. So you better hope she comes back from the Glowing Sea in one piece. ”

John said nothing as he watched his friend leave, a knot of guilt and shame growing in his gut.

 

~~

 

Hancock felt a hand tap his shoulder and he turned around.

MacCready punched him in the face.

“Goddamnit!” He swore and rubbed at his jaw. But when Hancock saw who it was he sighed. “Nevermind, I deserved that.”

“Dam- dang right you do!” Mac glared at him. “You really thought Bric OR I would do that do you? Seriously?” He was angry – and disappointed.

“Who told you?”

“Piper, who got it out of Nick with a lot of cajoling.”

“So I shouldn’t plan on any visits to Sanctuary any time soon then huh?” Hancock fumbled for a lighter for his cigarette. It had been almost a month since Bric walked out of Good Neighbor, and no one had heard a damn thing from her. Given the radiation levels in the Glowing Sea and her traveling alone, there was a good chance she might not have made it. But John refused to even consider that thought.

“Probably not. But you might be in luck – some settlement way down south, on the edge of the sea, radioed in. Said they wanted to join up with the Minute men. Weird thing was they said a woman had come from the Sea in a damaged Power suit and set up their radio and told ‘em to join up. They never got her name though.”

“It had to be her.” Hancock said, black eyes wide with hope. “Who the hell else could it be?”

“My thoughts exactly. But Preston ain’t so sure, neither’s Piper. It could just be a strange coincidence.”

“I don’t believe in coincidences.”

“Well if it was her, she didn’t say where she was going. And this was a few days ago.” MacCready shook his head. “Dam-Dangit Hancock, you’re a real idiot you know that?” He dug into the bag he was carrying. “You know why Bric was hanging out with me? Because she was working on this.” He removed a dark red pile of cloth and handed it to Hancock.

Hancock held it up. It was a replica of his jacket. A museum-quality piece from who knows where. But had more weight to it as it was reinforced with ballistic weave.

“Where the hell…?” Hancock stared the jacket in front of him and was struck again with guilt for his brash decisions. The jacket was reinforced and the buttons shined.

“I have no idea. She said she found it in a costume shop. She needed a model for the armoring improvement and roped me into it.”

Hancock sighed. “Why’d you bring it here?”

“Because I wanted you know exactly how big of an idiot you are.” MacCready rubbed the back of his neck with one hand. “She’d better be alright Hancock.”

The mercenary left Hancock standing there in the Third Rail, staring at the gift over which he had accused the woman he loved of cheating on him for.

 

~~

_“The only one making any mistakes here is you.”_

Bricelyn’s words echoed in his mind as Hancock slid the new jacket on it. It felt heavier than his regular jacket. The middle layer of woven ballistic fiber gave it a comforting weight, though it didn’t move as well when he strode across the room and back to his desk.

He ran his rough fingers over the polished silver buttons, then slid his hands in the pockets. It fit perfectly. And it made his heart drop.

_I’m a damn fool._

There wasn’t a mirror in his office and living space, he didn’t care to face himself in it. He’d seen himself once, after taking the drug, to confirm that John McDonough was dead and gone, and the face staring back at him wasn’t the one that made him feel like a fraud. Hancock paced the room, letting his thoughts race through the past month. Daisy had harangued him for an hour over his behavior after he’d left the Third Rail, still nursing a sore jaw from MacCready. She’d scolded him for acting like an adolescent and told him he was going to have to trust someone eventually, unless he wanted to be alone for his nearly-immortal life.

_You? You’re the best thing I’ve got_.

_So why’d I drive her away?_

_Because I was afraid she’d leave? Self-fulfilling prophecy much?_ John reached into his coat pocket for his jet inhaler, then realized it was in the old jacket. Before he’d even consciously thought about it, he’d found the inhaler in his old jacket and brought it to his lips before stopping.

_What am I doing?_

It was automated, a response to the racing thoughts and self loathing that was rising as he admitted to himself his mistake. He accepted the consequences but promptly dealt with them with the chems.

He set the inhaler down on the desk, and left the room.

“Hey Fare?” He called to the other room.

“Yeah boss?” The former mercenary was lounging on the couch. She exhaled a ring of smoke towards the ceiling.

“Clean out my office? All the chems – just get rid of them.”

Farhenheit stood up quickly, brow arched with plenty of unasked questions. But she nodded. “Sure thing.”

 

~~

“Well look what the cat dragged in.” Fahrenheit purred around her smoke. She was looking out the office window, down on the main entryway into Good Neighbor. She knew damn well there were plenty of ways in and out of Good Neighbor if one knew where to look, but most people just used the main entrance. If the former vault girl didn’t want to be seen, she really ought to have tried to slip in a different way. She did a good job though – with the hat down and her casual stroll in, she looked like any other outcast come for a little fun in the Commonweath’s sin city. But Fahrenheit had an eye for detail that had served her well, and the irregular size of the figure’s one forearm was a dead give away for a pipboy.

“Huh?” Hancock had his feet up on his desk, twirling an inhaler of jet between his fingers. He hadn’t taken any – he’d been clean for four months. But damnit if he didn’t want to right now. He tossed it towards the trash can. He missed. He was in an awful mood since the run in with the Brotherhood patrol that morning. Fahrenheit had eventually gotten him to admit that said patrol had included Bric, now working as a Brotherhood of Steel operative apparently.

Fahrenheit couldn’t blame the mayor for his awful mood, even if it was all his own damn fault. In the years she’d known him, she’d never seen him happy for as long as he was with the Vaultie. And admittedly, Bric’s antics and deeds had earned the ex-mercenary’s respect. But she knew Hancock well enough to know the biggest impediment to his happiness was only himself, so she hadn’t been surprised with how that relationship ended. She’d never pegged Bric as a Brotherhood type, though.

“The Brotherhood’s newest recruit just strolled on in to town. Looks like she got in a bit of a scrape.”

Hancock leapt to his feet, the cigarette he was in the middle of lighting completely forgotten and cast aside. “Bricelyn? She’s here?”

Fahrenheit nodded. “Looks like she’s slippin’ off to Bobbi’s old place.”

She turned from the window, but Hancock was already gone. She could hear his footsteps racing down the steps two at a time.


End file.
